THE DIARY OF A HUSTLER

In previous posts, I have discussed the importance of leveraging time and the benefits of leveraging knowledge and education.  Another lever to success is technology.

Technology Leverage

Finding technology leverage is all about thinking about how you work, and using technology to automate as much of this as you can.

Depending on your needs, technology can help at all levels.  I am still having a hard time wrapping my brain around the power of technology.  At a simple level, you might find that all you need to keep you in touch with home and work is a laptop computer. Or you might need a personal digital assistant (PDA) to help you conveniently maintain files and such.

If you’re a slow typist, voice recognition software can help you dictate documents and save time. Tools like Google Desktop Search (http://desktop.google.com) can help you manage and find documents in such a way that you no longer need to file digital documents. And Google itself provides a great, quick way of finding relevant information online. 

At a more sophisticated level, you may find that you can use simple desktop databases like Microsoft Access to automate simple work processes. If you do a lot of routine data processing  you can find that this saves you a great deal of time. 

If you do a lot of email marketing, you may find autoresponders such as Aweber and GetResponse to be extremely useful.  These tools allow you to write unlimited emails in advance and set a time and date that you would like them to be executed.  It’s like having your own personal assistant, but better. You do the work one time and the system does the rest!

If you have a clientele base, a good way to stay connected is to use an automated card system. Greeting cards can be used for a variety of purposes, such as thanking a customer for a purchase, updating your customers on new offers and specials, or reminding them to renew a subscription, to name a few.  Depending upon how large your consumer base is, an automated card system could save a huge amount of time while maintaining a personal relationship with an unlimited amount of people.

 You only need to set up a process once with tools like these- afterwards the process will be executed the same way each time, by whomever initiates the process.

There is software to solve almost every problem.  Some of these can automate or simplify tasks that are otherwise very time-consuming.  Websites, web-based catalogs, online store fronts can give clients easy access to up-to-date product information, and help them place orders simply and easily. Blogs and email-based newsletters help people stay in contact with thousands of people quickly and easily. All of these use technology to provide tremendous leverage.

(I will continue to add more so check periodically for more suggestions)  Here are a few ways that I have learned to leverage technology:

Automated card system:  This system is an incredible way to automatically send cards and gifts to an unlimited amount of people at once. So suppose you already have a clientele base and a group of customers have made a purchase.  You can send a real greeting card to that group to personally thank them for their recent purchase.  You can even use this system in your personal life as well. If you are the type of person who sends cards and gifts to friends and family, you don’t have to ever worry about forgetting another important day.  Simply enter their information, create the card, select a gift if you choose, and tell the system the date to send it. I am sure there are many companies that provide this service.  The company that I use give you a free gift account so that you can check out the quality of the cards and the cards are very reasonable.  I think the highest amount you will pay for a card is $1.50.

Lead capture pages:  These pages are set up to give away something valuable for the exchange of some information, usually a name and an email address.  This is a great way to create a list of people who are already interested in your offer (afterall they wouldn’t provide their info if they weren’t). So you have not found just any lead, but a rather hot lead.

Autoresponders:  These are systems that send emails automatically. If you do a lot of email marketing, campaining, or newsletters, this is a must have. Popular autoresponders are Aweber, GetResponse, and Oprius. They all do pretty much the same thing. Some have better features than others. Oprius allows you to create a lead capture page with their system, which is pretty cool.  They are not that expensive, usually starting around 16 bucks a month.  Depending on your needs, you can choose from various packages.

Online meetings:  Use the web to conduct online meetings and trainings with systems such as Gotomeeting and Gotowebinar. This is ultimate leverage. You do not have to meet in person with your team or staff. You can conduct a full training or meeting using this site and meet with people regardless of their location. They give you a 30 day free trial too which is always a plus.

 Social Networking and Bookmarking Sites:   Sites such as Twitter, Digg, and Facebook is one of the best ways to leverage technology.  I will provide specifics in future posts, but I am learning that these are the best ways to bring traffic to your business. Twitter seems to be the most efficient because of the nature of the site.  It seems that it is designed for marketing yourself.  Again I will get into specifics in a later post, but if you are already using these sites or other social networking platforms, it would be wise to take advantage of free exposure.  If your goal is to get your clientele up or drive people to your information sites, you should think of these types of sites as being part of a community. Make a good impression, provide value and solutions to people in your community (don’t pitch to people), give something that make people want to check you out further.  When used correctly, this is one way to leverage technology and your time.  Everything that you post has the potential to be seen by massive amounts of people without you having to leave your home.  Network wisely.

ttyl, Na’sia

My motto: Learn, teach, inspire, and you shall receive all that your heart desires!

“I would rather earn 1% off a hundred people’s efforts… than 100% of my own.”

These are the words of Jean Paul Getty, an American industrialist and founder of Getty Oil Company. In 1957, he was named the richest living american (you can always learn from the wealthy).

So what exactly does he mean by this?  He is describing the concept of leverage—-Achieving Much More with the Same or Less Effort

To do a push-up, you could do it the regular way, the “girlie” way, or using a tool, such as the Perfect Pushup, bars, or an exercise ball.   I personally use the Perfect Push-up and the ball.

Which approach is wiser? Will you succeed without using leverage? Maybe depending on your upper body strength. But you can do so many more on the exercise ball and do it so much more easily!  And the Perfect Pushup device allows you to target different muscles all while putting in the same amount of effort!  In this case you are leveraging your strength by using a device.  The results are: more easier pushups accomplished and more muscles targeted than the normal pushup.

So what has this got to do with your life and career?

The answer is “a whole lot”.   In fact, you should apply leverage  to every area of your life, when possible to maximize your success.  Without leverage, you may work very hard, but your rewards are limited by the hours you put in. With leverage, you can achieve much more.

Some Key Levers of Success : Time, Knowledge and Education, Technology, Financial

How do you work SMARTER and not HARDER?

In this post, I am going to focus on the leverage of Time (yours and that of other people).

Leveraging your time is a key component of success.  Since we only have 24 hours in a day (5-8 in which we use to sleep) leaving us with 16-19 left, we only can accomplish so much with our time.  And if you are trying to build a business along with working a full-time job and raising a family,  such as myself, it seems like there is never enough time!

I am learning that in order to leverage my time I must do the following:

1. Practice effective time management- for me this means having a plan. I plan my day out either in my head or in writing (I stick to it better if it is in writing because I can see things getting acomplished).  But either way will do, as long as there is a plan of the day in place.  I will shut my phone off when I am working (which drives my family and friends crazy) but hey, I am a long-winded person and talking will become a distraction.  Time is so precious… it waits for noone and you can never get it back once it is gone.   I hate wasting time.   I try to take advantage of every hour of the day.  Tip 1. Eliminate the activities that are not helping you to reach your goal for the day. Tip 2. Use technology to automate everything that you can!  Read more about how to do this on my leveraging technology post.
2. Put everything into perspective-   It is so easy to get wrapped up in unnecessary activities that will not give you a great return on your investment.  For example, online marketing requires  networking, but it does not require spending hours aimlessly viewing pics or chatting on facebook (I’m guilty).  It is so easy to spend an hour  or more checking your email, IM, facebook, myspace, twitter, blog stats and everything else(I’m guilty).  For those of you who are new to online marketing, if you don’t take any other advice from me please listen to this: Find a way to control and monitor your networking and information seeking.  It is so easy to get caught up reading material that is not helpful toward your daily goals.  If you come across something interesting, bookmark it and save it for another time so that you will not become distracted.  Put a limit on how much time you will spend on everything and focus on that task for the duration of that time, check it off at the end, and move on to the next task.
3. Set short term and long term realistic goals-     Be very clear on what you want to accomplish every day, by the end of the week, month, year, and in the next five years. Ultimately, you are creating a blueprint for your long-term success. Dreams and ideas are great, but what good are they if not acted upon? Then, they are just intentions.  A person can have the best intentions in the world, but if action isn’t taken, it’s useless.  Setting small goals is like a road map to success. It is important to note that your goals and timeframes should be realistic so that you won’t feel like a failure.  For me, if something isn’t completed, I come down hard on myself by either getting frustrated or disappointed that I wasn’t able to reach my goal.  Sometimes I have to demand less of myself in the timeframe given or admit that what I am trying to accomplish will take a little more time than I expected.  So set goals, write them down, and now it’s time for action!
4. To leverage your time, you cannot and must not procrastinate! “Procrastination is like masturbation, you are only screwing yourself.”  Sorry to be so expressive, but hey sometimes we need to hear that in order to really get the point.  Procrastination is something that I struggle with, but I find that the best way to handle it is to do what you don’t want to do first.  Get it over and done with.  That is why many people exercise in the morning…it is over and done with and you can move on with your day (unfortunately my schedule doesn’t afford me this luxury).  Procrastination can eat away at your time and leave you feeling awful that you haven’t accomplished anything.  I have literally thought about how many things I needed to do for so long that the day would be nearly over and I hadn’t did not one thing!  I have gotten much better, but sometimes that nasty habit creeps up on me.   A great book tovercome procrastination is “Eat That Frog.”  It is on my must read list.

Okay so I have talked about some ways to leverage your time on your own, but now let’s look at how you could use other people’s time to leverage your time.

1. Learn how to delegate work to other people-  Of course you have to make sure the person is cut out for the job and if they are Great! I love when my mom helps me grade papers, while I am doing lesson plans… This is leverage at its finest.  If you can find help… use it!
2. Train and teach others-  When my students master a concept, I use them to teach other students who may be still struggling.  If you can train or teach someone to do something, it can pay out for you in the end because now you have a qualified person to either help you with a task or move you to the next level of what you are doing.
3. Outsource- Even the smartest person do not know everything.  And if you don’t know ask right?  Well in business, it could sometime be wise to hire people with the experience to do them more efficiently.
   Money that you invest in leveraging other people’s time is usually well spent.  If you are trying to create a website for your company, it might be better for you to pay someone to do it, so that you can focus on other things.  It depends on your needs. For me, I like to learn all that I can so that I can do it myself and this could be a double edge sword.   It is important to distinguish when to use someone else’s expertise and when to learn something for yourself.

Remember that it is normal for us to take on the world and be self-reliant, but this will limit you to achieving only those things that you can do by yourself which could be a complete hinderance to your overall success. 

Check out my other posts on leveraging of knowledge and education and technology resources.

ttyl, Na’sia

My motto: Learn, teach, inspire, and you shall receive all that your heart desires!

I think that it is important to explain the difference between a work from HOME BUSINESS and a work from HOME JOB. 

 A HOME BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY- always requires an investment. It could be very small or very big.  This is usually for your materials and products. It also provides residual income and gives you the advantage of leverage.

A HOME JOB -is  a company that will allow you to work as an employee and they will pay you an hourly rate or base pay while working from home. Be very careful searching for an At Home JOB, and NEVER pay to work as an Employee from home. (F.Y.I. as a Home Business Owner there is an investment, a JOB is not a Business)Since I have began my online marketing, I am always of course where? Online-setting up my online real estate, networking, and studying.  During my virtual travels, I come across a lot of information, some valuable others not so valuable (btw, it is so easy to get off track of your goals bec of the wealth of information that the internet provides- so to those of you who are newbies to online marketing-STAY FOCUSED).  Anyway, as I stumble upon anything of value, I like to share.  So here it is:

Remember these are jobs, so you don’t have to pay anything to get started with these companies.

LiveOps- It is a virtual call center that routes calls to agents for various companies, mostly informercials.  So basically, when people call to place an order the system will randomly route the call. When you are logged into their site, the system knows that you are ready to work and begins to send you calls. A script shows up on your screen and you take the call from there. 

From what I read on the site, you get paid by the minute and the computer automatically records your talk time.  I searched the site to find out how much the salary is, but I couldn’t find a dollar amount.  However, there are  I think 5 different positions that you can apply for. All you need is a computer and a land-line phone. The site says that no experience is necessary.

 It seems cool if you have the time to spare and you enjoy doing customer service work. There isn’t any selling because the people are calling into buy a product so that is good- most people don’t like sales.  You can check out the video of a woman who works for them here.  What I like about it is you can literally make your own hours, just by logging in whenever you have the time. And the site states that as long as you take at least 2 calls every 42 days, you will be an agent.

This next job is similiar to the first company. 

West At Home- The site describe their company as a support center for their clients.  The services they offer vary from customer care and live chat to email and incoming sales calls.   The positions range from assisting an individual with resolving a billing inquiry, helping a customer purchase an accessory for their wireless phone, or providing product assistance/troubleshooting. The application process is 35 minutes and you are given a virtual interview (talk about 21st century!). 

Neither of these positions require ever going into an office. Everything is done from the computer.  The pay for both of these companies vary by minute or call depending upon the position. There is no dollar amount given, so I guess you will find that out when applying or you can call for more info. Both sites have phone numbers. 

From what I’ve read the requirements are: a high-speed Internet connection, land-line phone, and the ability to pass a background check.  I’m assuming the background check is to make sure you haven’t been convicted of fraud or identity theft since the position entails dealing with people’s credit cards and personal information. 

I think I might give one of these companies a try this summer while I am enjoying my summer vacation. The only problem I have is there is no opportunity for leverage-that’s because it’s a job(read my post on the importance of leverage in your life).  But it is a way to make additional money from the comfort of your home.

Leave a comment if you or someone you know ever worked at one of these companies. Let me know your experience.

-ttyl Na’sia

My motto: Learn, Teach, Inspire, and you will receive all that your heart Desires!

 So as promised I am providing some work from home ideas for everyone who has ever thought about how they could make ends meet or make  a little extra without getting another job.   This is only intended to be a starting point for each of the ideas. As with anything worth doing,  it actually takes work to achieve results.  Keep in mind that these are just a few, there are countless other possibilities.  Feel free to comment with your suggestions and I will give you more ideas in future posts.  Ok here we go and these are not in any particular order:

1.  BLOGGING.    Did you know that people and companies will pay you to write for their blogs? Don’t tell me you don’t know what a blog is because you are reading one now (smile).   Companies and small business owners hire bloggers for the purpose of writing content on their blogs.   I found a site that update blogger jobs almost everyday. How do you make money? Some businesses will state the type of  article they need written and ask how much it would cost them to have that need met.  So you are charging for your writing skills!  Others will pay you an amount per article or a regular salary based on a contract. In either case you get paid for writing content on a site. I would suggest this work from home option only if you love to write and have significant amount of time to spare so that you are sure to provide quality and value.
2. FREELANCE WRITER.   You may write articles for magazines, advertising copy for brochures, technical manuals and other literary products on weekends or in your spare time.  Write about your expertise or experience. For example, if you are a new bride, you can write articles for wedding and women magazines about the process of preparing for a wedding.  How do you make money?  Based on my research, some writing projects will pay by the hour-usually about $20 to $75 depending on your writing skills.  Most however, will pay by the number of words or by a percentage of the selling price (if it’s a book).  There are a number or resources out there that lists potential markets for various kinds of writing be it poetry, screenplays, articles, books, or web. Start with Writersmarket.com. This site is the “freelance writers’ bible” because it provides contact information for thousands of publishers, literary agents, and editors.
3. CREATE A WRITTEN PRODUCT.  While we’re on the topic of writing… have you ever thought about creating a written product.  It can be a simple how-to article about something you specialize in, such as, how to unclog a drain(just an example).  Or a review of a book, movie, play, ect.  How about writing about your experience?  Produce an article and post it to sites such as ezine.com, hubpages.com, and squidoo.com.   The product is written articles that get traffic from search engines. In order to be successful, the content you produce should be on topics that people search for on Google or other major search engines. The key to success here is high quality, valuable information.  A well written piece of content that does an excellent job at answering a question, explaining how to do something, or reviewing a product or place in detail will be worthwhile reading.  But how do you make money from these articles? One way to make money is through Google AdSense. AdSense places ads that match the content of your writing. Advertisers like placing ads through AdSense since they are so highly targeted. Users will click on the ads if they are interested in them and google will pay you money. The way you generate earnings will depend on the type of ads which have been displayed on your site. You can receive earnings for valid clicks on cost-per-click (CPC) ads and valid impressions on cost-per-thousand-impression (CPM) ads.   This creates a great opportunity for you to make a decent side income depending upon how much traffic visits your article.  I will talk about how to attract traffic in a future post, but if that is something that you would like to learn about immediately, the book  “The Marketers Manifesto” (it’s free…find it under featured books)  does a great job of showing the power of attraction marketing.  More on attraction marketing coming soon!   Another advantage to creating written products is the opportunity to sell your product for whatever price your heart desires (of course you would want to be reasonable and do some research on how much your work is worth to your target market).  Think about it.  You can write an e-book (an online book), report, or manual, turn it into a pdf file (very simple to do), and sell it.  Sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter are great sites to promote yourself and your items. 
4. NETWORK MARKETING. Many people think that network marketing aka multi-level marketing(mlm)… is a pyramid scheme because of the structure of the industry.  The truth is network marketing is a $20 billion dollar industry and there are thousands of  different mlm companies.  This article explains what network marketing is and why it is not a pyramid scheme.  it also explains where the confusion lies and how to look for a reputable company.  Most people do not realize the value of becoming a network marketer.  I didn’t either until I read Robert Kiyosaki’s (a business guru among other things) book,  Rich Dad’s Business School - For People Who Like Helping People. The entire book is dedicated to the network marketing industry and it cleared up a lot of confusion for me.  Anyhow, how do you make money?  Network marketing companies do not advertise which allows them to pay individual people to  advertise for them.  These companies also reward you for recruiting other salespeople, creating a team.  You then get paid a percentage when they sell an item.  Perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of these companies is that they pay you a residual income.  The power of this type of income is incredible!  Think about selling a person a service one time and getting paid every time they use it or renew their membership-that is residual income, in music it’s called royalties.  There are literally thousands of network marketing companies out there.  I would suggest doing research to find out how long they’ve been in business, what services and/or products are offered and whether those products are valuable to others and profitable to you.  The rule for me is, if I wouldn’t use it, I wouldn’t sell it. Just my personal philosophy.  But be careful, many people in the industry still use traditional marketing techniques that can take you a long time to become successful.  Be willing to become a learner. I would strongly suggest reading “The Seven Great Lies of Network Marketing”. It is a free report about the traditional marketing strategies that the network marketing industry teach. Next, I suggest reading the Renegade Network Marketer. Both books are written by Ann Sieg and she teaches how to become a successful network marketer of the 21st century.  There are keys to being successful in network marketing and I didn’t discover them when I joined my first network marketing company.  It wasn’t until after I partnered with my second network marketing company that I learned how to truly become successful with this type of home-based business.More on network marketing soon, but if you have a specific question feel free to leave a comment or email me.
5. SELL A TANGIBLE PRODUCT.  The big difference here is that you have to actually deliver a physical product. There are types of products that I think are better for selling online. First, if you can resell high margin products that are small and easy to ship.  Highmarginproduct.com allows you to market and sell their products.  You can market them on your site, ebay, facebook, or any other social networking sites.  The best part is they will ship the product directly to the customer.  I just found out about this company.  I plan on checking out their products to see if there are things that I would be interested in promoting.
6. MORE TANGIBLE PRODUCTS.  Are you creative?  Why not sell something you create. This could be holiday candy, specialty baskets, candles or a product that you figure out how to manufacture.  The key is to sell products that cost little to nothing to make, but are worth good money.  One of my students (I am a 7th grade teacher) make beautiful candles out of crayon!  Those could easily sell for ten, fifteen dollars or more depending on the size and style (and she has many styles).  How much would her investment be? She only needs crayon and wax.  The key is to have a high margin product and a market available that can move them. How do you make money?  You make money when a product is sold. The amount of money you make is dependent upon things such as, is there a market for your product, if you are marketing correctly, the price of the item, just to name a few.  However, there are sites and tutorials for free or little to no cost at all that will show you step-by-step how to set up a website that people can purchase from.  Tune back for more information about setting up a website.